A Mate's Surprise
by TheMaskedCat
Summary: One shot from my beloved A Demon's Mate. Just a look at Serena and Malphas/Sebastian's daily life. A mate tries her hand at seduction and a killer pair of boots.


Author's Note: I know, I know. I said that I was walking away from Sebastian and Serena especially since I have worked them into my book series. (For those that know where to look. Actually I thought that it was pretty obvious.) Anyway, I just couldn't get this little one shot out of my head and it doesn't fit into the books anywhere. I have a few of these from the book series too, maybe I should start my own website to host little one-shots from the series that don't fit in the books? Something to think about.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji or any of its character's. Nor do I claim any names or areas from Solomon's Key. I only claim Serena. I'm just playing in someone else's sandbox for a little while and taking a break from my own. Right now it feels like a shitbox.

A Mate's Surprise

Malphas, the Elder formally known as Sebastian, walked into his home after another meeting with the Elders of the Bastion of Riches. It was days like today that he missed the Phantomhive mansion. Even with all its little irritations, on its worst day, the manor was better than demon politics.

A quick scan of his home, he had put a little of himself in each stone and floor, showed nothing surprising. Ciel was nowhere to be found, but he did have a weekly standing game of chess with Gusion. Lucien and Emily were locked away in his suite. The lust demon still wasn't taking Edwin's departure well and spent most of his time in his rooms. Malphas wasn't taking it well either. Edwin had been a part of his house since its first inception and they all missed him. Corrine had been oddly quiet as well. He had figured that she would be happier to be back here. After the fuss she had raised over her leaving.

What was this? His mate was safely ensconced in their rooms at the top of the tower, some aura pulsing around her. And the faint sound of an evil giggle.

Malphas spread his black wings and took the easy way to the top of the tower, ignoring the twin gasps below him from two new demons as he flew higher, circling to the double doors leading to his own suite that he now shared with his mate. And Ciel on occasion. He felt a growl building in his chest and silenced it as he slipped through the wards he had placed to protect his mate and up the shallow steps leading into their rooms.

Ciel's own suite was the floor below his and Serena's. He had been given a whole half of the tower, the other side taken up by Serena's painting studio. Each floor had two suites, taking up a side each of the round structure. The spiral staircase stretched up from the first floor through the center of the tower to the top and a thin balcony around.

He had claimed the entire top floor of the tower for himself ages ago when it was first built. The small sitting area and bedroom were one room, round with walls made of windows that showed the views of the crystal forest on one side that moved through Haagenti's territory and the fast moving river that led to the Spring of Wisdom on the other. The garden and hedge maze were a new addition after he had been told of Serena's time spent with the new Phantoms. She had adored the hedge maze. As well as the bathroom that took up the only enclosed area of their rooms. He didn't care that there was no one to look in, he wasn't taking chances of his mate putting on another show.

Speaking, or was that thinking, of Serena. She was standing in front of the windows that looked over the gardens and pool, silhouetted in the eternal twilight that passed for daytime in Hell. The small bit of light glinted off her red hair. It would soon give way to the darkness that fit the demons that had made their home in this strange land. He stopped when he took in what she was wearing and wondered how he had first missed it when he came into the room. Then again, Malphas was learning quickly that most thoughts fled at the joy of being in his mate's presence.

She had done something to a lovely black lace dress he had created for her, after seeing it on some Hollywood starlet decades ago and thought that it would look quite pleasing against his mate's pale skin. He was right. But she had shortened it somehow to stop mid-thigh instead of the floor length gown it had once been. On her feet were a pair of his own boots, made to fit her small feet and graceful legs.

"You know," Serena said as she turned from the window. "I think I know why you wear these. They are very powerful boots."

She came toward him, walking slowly and letting the scream-sharp heels strike the floor and echo around their space.

"It's not just sex. Although that is a rather overpowering part of their appeal. It's the power. You can hear them coming a mile away. I bet there are some people you've scared to death just by listening to the sound of these boots coming closer."

Malphas only nodded as he sunk to the floor just in front of the steps.

"There's also an innate feeling of power just walking in them." Serena smirked a little as he stared at her while she stalked across the stone floor. "The way you have to move, the way you have to step. As if you move and everyone else will move around you."

Serena stopped just in front of him. "As if the world will fall at your feet."

Malphas stared up the length of her leg, running a hand over the slick leather of the boot and laying a kiss as soon as skin showed. She saw his brain start to come back online when his lips stretched in his signature smirk and he laid his head against her leg.

"Where did you get them in your size, my mate?"

"Ciel."

A snarl burst out before he could stop it. Serena just laughed it off. She had figured out early that his moods would never be directed at her.

"No, I didn't play with him in them. He didn't even get to see them on."

"Good." One of his more playful habits made a reappearance as the leather covering his skin flowed off his body like water. Serena pushed him away with the leg he still held.

"Go to my bed."

"Our bed," he growled.

"But you don't sleep. So it's my bed," She said innocently as she looked at him over her shoulder and walked to the massive piece of furniture that dominated the room. "Aren't you glad that I want you in it?"

He beat her there. Serena felt only a breeze before he was laying, stretched out on the white cotton sheets she had insisted on, waiting further instructions. The white cotton always struck her when he laid against it with his pale skin and black hair. She had insisted on the sheets mainly because they were cool. Serena more often than not, found herself in the middle of a demon sandwich and although they didn't radiate heat like she did, they did keep it in. The black silk that had previous graced the large stretch of real estate had disappeared her first week here. Malphas had been happy with her choice when she had told him there was a certain strange eroticism to seeing a demon on something that was normally thought of as innocent.

Her demon was almost vibrating excitement as he waited and Serena walked around the floor to ceiling posts to the other side of the bed. She really hadn't thought that she would get this far with this strange idea that had struck her as she looked for something to wear this morning in the overflowing closet that Malphas provided and stocked himself. Ciel had been instrumental in the idea, mainly getting the boots to fit her. He had been rather put out that she wouldn't let him stay. She hoped he hadn't misunderstood her, she liked having Ciel with them, but every once in a while it was nice to just be the two of them. There was something when it was just them, some feeling, maybe what touchy-feely people called a connection, that wasn't there with Ciel. Then again, he wasn't hers. Not really.

Her eyes slid back to the bed and got a peek of her demon's smirk. He knew.

"You seem to have lost your script, my mate."

The red head glared over the stretch of mattress. "Don't you dare laugh at me."

"I am not laughing." But that smirk was still on his face as he settled against the pillows.

"You normally take over." She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear with a slight tremor in her hand. "I wasn't expecting to get this far."

"Ah, I see." Malphas rolled, stalking across the bed on his hands and knees, moving like the feline predators he loved so much. "I think you need a lesson in seduction, my mate."

He stopped just in front of her, trailing a single finger up her side. "First, you have to know what you want."

She raised an eyebrow. "No problems there."

"Next, you have to know how to attract them. I can say that you have no problems in that area." He spoke softly as he ran his lips up her throat. "The most successful seducers have one very important thing in common. Not the most successful lovers. They either have looks or money that they throw around and their bedroom door is always open. Lovers are just there. But seducers are much like hunters."

"What's that?" Serena asked breathless, as he nibbled that one spot behind her ear that always made her head fall back.

"They study what they want. They learn their prey's habits, what they like. What their choices indicate they want from a lover, how to break down the wall of their instinct. Every prey has instincts to avoid the hunter. What do they wear when they have a choice, what do they choose to eat? How do they move? How do they wear their hair? How do they think? Do they choose sweet or savory? You, for example, my mate. You like savory. Or perhaps that's you like to be savored. I'm not sure that you are cut out to a seducer. You enjoy being seduced too much."

Malphas slid a hand behind her knee and jerked, pulling her onto the bed and laying Serena out against the pristine back drop.

"And someone who is the seduced, shouldn't wear these." He slid the zipper down smoothly on one, pulling the leather off her leg and tossing it over the edge of the bed. The second followed its mate in short order. "I do like what you have done with this gown though."

"I thought you might." Serena settled into the mound of pillows that covered the head of their bed.

He was right. This was where she felt the most comfortable. Maybe some years from now, after she had learned more from her demon, after she was more comfortable with the power she had over him, she could try being the seducer again.

But right now, as his nail sliced down the front of the lace dress she had found and spent over an hour cutting the skirt and train. As he stared up at her with that look in his eye that he was about to teach her something else, Serena couldn't think of anywhere else she would want to be.


End file.
